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In this busy, non-stop world, it is sometimes worth going back to basics and reminding yourself of just why you are regularly turning up at the gym. Just why are we sweating it out in our aerobic training sessions?

For anyone wishing to take up football, or any other team sport, a good level of fitness will put you at a big advantage when it comes to playing the game. Whether you are a recreational player who occasionally joins in for a kick around in the park, or a league player who turns out every weekend, fitness is something you can work on by yourself and really see improvements.

Beth Shriever is Team GB’s BMX star who won a memorable gold medal at the Tokyo 2022 Olympic Games and then, just three weeks later won gold at the World Championships.

This was a young athlete who, until 2019, wasn’t even funded bu UK Sport to be on the British Cycling training programme. For a year, the athlete and her family did fundraising and crowd-funding activities to help get the cycling protégée to Olympic qualification events.

Training for muscle gain

Several things changed for Beth once she was accepted onto the programme. Working with a sports psychologist, she became mentally resilient and learnt to cope with all that life threw at her. She trained with the BMX men’s team to get strong and aggressive in her racing performances; she learnt how to match her nutritional intake with her energy needs. Most importantly, she learnt how to train in the gym so she was – in her words – ‘properly strong and powerful’.

For some people, exercise is a means to an end. It is the way that they stay fit and healthy to perform the day-to-day tasks that life throws at them. This is called functional fitness. It trains your muscles to help you do everyday activities safely, effectively and with little or no risk of injury. A good level of functional fitness means life’s challenges become easy to surmount.

It is a sport loved by players from recreational level through to elite performance. Badminton is an activity that calls for speed, endurance, flexibility, balance, swift reaction times and an ability to read the game. It is also a great sport for social interaction so the mental health benefits are also pronounced.

One activity that allows for social distancing is climbing. Under Covid restrictions, the number of participants on the wall at any one time is 14, which allows for a real sense of freedom and adventure. The routes up the bouldering wall range from straightforward to very challenging and, within the allowed two-hour slot, a climber can get a fantastic all-over workout as well as the mental stimulation of working out routes and techniques.

One of our missions at Kelsey Kerridge Sports Centre and Gym is to help people discover exercise that they can enjoy and benefit from. We believe that, no matter how much a person might have disliked sport at school, there will be some activity that really appeals and catches their imagination. Our staff are here to help people who are interested in developing a positive relationship with exercise.

All of which indicates that people who go to the gym are no more at risk than any other members of the population. And, as pointed out earlier in the article, by staying fit in every other way, people who take regular exercise will be building up a defence system better equipped to deal with the virus. 

With cinemas, pubs and hairdressers all allowed to resume business on 4 July, those within the health and leisure sector fully expected to follow the same timeline.

Here at Kelsey Kerridge, we have been ready for re-opening for weeks, after following industry and government guidelines to the letter. Our workforce was ready to welcome people back, social distancing restrictions are carefully planned and the entire place is – and will always be – cleaned to the strictest standard of hygiene we can attain.